Party Time in Britain

...The goal of the new Tory leadership is to demonstrate how different the party is from the version that suffered three successive electoral defeats...

...More important to this American, Blair once again explained to a hostile audience what the war on terror is all about, and how destructive of British interests it would be to pull away from the United States...

...Brown tried to persuade the crowd that Tony Blair is a bosom buddy, for whom he has nothing but the highest regard...

...Cameron leads Brown by double digits in the latest poll...

...So smiles and sunshine all around, and no policies of any substance lest the party faithful and the electorate find something they might not like...

...Perhaps the fact that Gordon Brown, Blair's almost certain successor, has almost 20 years on David Cameron and therefore comes closer to remembering minor skirmishes like World War II explains the difference...

...The unions, who continue to control the largest number of votes and provide the largest portion of the party's financing, were unimpressed, and passed a resolution to roll back the Blairite reforms...

...So Blair, taking the rostrum the next day, decided to make lemonade out of that lemon by announcing that at least he doesn't have to worry about his wife running off with the bloke next door...

...by Irwin M. Stelzer London A week among the New Labour crowd of failed regicides, union leaders who hanker for the power wrested from them by Margaret Thatcher, and the America-loving old pro who showed them what they will be missing when he steps down, followed by a week mingling with the New Tory crowd of hoodie-hugging (young British muggers typically wear hoods), green-hued, America-haters (well not haters, just folks looking to put distance between themselves and America) is an education I commend to all serious students of the U.S.-U.K...

...A resolution calling for just such an elitist measure was barely defeated...

...Oddly, America's interests have been better served by leftish Labour: Even though the majority of its members are antiwar, its present and prospective leader understand that we are in what will be a long war with Islamic terrorists, and are more firmly wedded to the special relationship with America than are the "Cameroons...

...We are entering an interesting time in British politics...

...No sale...

...At these Labour and Conservative party conferences you get to see the leaders up close and personal and can talk to the delegates who turn out to cheer, drink themselves into late-night stupors, and, in their many serious moments, attend the meetings at which issues from green taxes to the allocation of health care budgets are debated...

...The Labour conference, of course, featured an attempt at the reconciliation of the occupant of No...

...Not a bad try by the man who Irwin M. Stelzer is a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard, director of economic policy studies at the Hudson Institute, and a columnist for the Sunday Times (London...

...just a few days before concocted—or at least failed to abort—a plot to force Blair to hit the speech circuit as a private citizen...

...Blair, who has dominated the stage for a decade, is half way out the door...

...Bill Clinton, introduced by Blair as a former president and rock star, bathed the crowd in what one delegate called "warm fudge": He loved them, they loved him back...

...11, his chancellor, Gordon Brown—an effort that failed so gloriously as to keep the sessions interesting, a feature lacking at the Tory love-in...

...Instead there are pledges to increase spending on the already overmanned National Health Service, attacks on business for selling fattening chocolate-covered oranges, approval of gay marriage and single motherhood, and green policies that might, just might, include taxes on cheap airplane flights...

...The Arizona senator delivered a call to honesty, honor, duty, and commitment to a long war to defeat Islamic terrorism...

...So no more toadying to America, an "even-handed" policy in dealing with Palestinians and Israelis, and forget about tax cuts...

...relationship...

...We do know, after all, that Brown is a serious student of history, while Cameron is a former public relations man unencumbered by the weight of that history...

...the Tories, who have spent that decade warring on each other, have now left that self-defeating practice to Labour, and are on the upswing behind new, young, and emollient leaders...

...The party's fury with their leader for supporting Bush and Israel during the Lebanon war would under ordinary circumstances have resulted in a round of boos, but since Blair is on his way out, Labourites contented themselves with sullen silence...

...10 Downing Street, Tony Blair, and the inhabitant of No...

...Yes, Britain and America share values...

...But should he succeed in trading opposition for office, he will be unable to avoid having history thrust upon him...

...Their real goal is to let Gordon Brown know they expect him to ignore his previous pledges to continue these reforms and instead revert to the Scottish socialist they all believe—or are hoping—he really is...

...The Tories countered with John McCain—"Labour had a past president, we have a future one"—a man made of sterner stuff than Clinton...

...In probably the best speech of his life, Blair affirmed his intention to use the remaining months in office —he more or less voluntarily steps down in May or June—to continue his efforts to convert the educational and health care systems from producer-controlled dinosaurs into consumer-controlled service providers fit to serve a 21st-century welfare state...

...The Tories are less eager to affirm their faith in the special relationship...

...No matter...

...But the gent's not for turning, as the unions well knew...

...But there's no need to be "slavish" followers of American foreign policy, as if washington had ever sought such a one-sided relationship...

...He had almost persuaded the credulous until Mrs...

...The crowd, most of whom had never heard of McCain, loved that part of his talk, delivered after arid stretches apologizing for his age and praising Ronald Reagan in the manner of a seeker after votes in the Iowa primary...

...Both parties brought in American heavy hitters to lend some international credibility...

...Blair, Cherie Booth in her professional lawyer's life, was heard by a Bloomberg reporter to say, "That's a lie," which the Downing Street spin doctors tried to persuade the press was really, "I must get by...

...Most important, the new leadership, a duo of shadow prime minister David Cameron and shadow chancellor George osborne, presented fresh, youthful faces (Cameron turned 40 last week), designed to distinguish the New Tories from the mean old party of Margaret Thatcher...